PKF said Cradley had made 166 redundancies, effective immediately, and would be advertising for potential buyers over the next few days.

Administrators Ian Gould and Eddie Kerr said 56 of Cradley Print's original 222 staff would remain to finish "jobs in hand".

On 24 March, the Midlands-based magazine printer announced it was in negotiations with employees to reduce the size of its workforce in order to reduce costs.

In early April, Cradley then sold its Chester Road site for 2.4m to cover the "anticipated reorganisation costs" of the cuts.

Cradley proposed around 70 new redundancies, along with changes to shift patterns and shift premiums in return for a 25% share of "future profits" for the remaining workforce.

"This was simply unacceptable," said Amicus national officer Steve Sibbald. "Share of a non-existent profit wasn't good enough."

Sibbald said this was the fifth survival package the workforce had been offered since 2001 and that the management had brought about "death by a thousand cuts".

Cradley said this refusal meant its principal banker had "withdrawn its facility".

Amicus has since reacted in anger to what it perceives as "Cradley's assertion that Amicus was responsible for the company being placed in administration".

"Our members have endured five years of uncertainty, insecurity and indignity in the face of a continual threat to their livelihoods," said assistant general secretary Tony Burke.

"To try to pin the blame on the workforce in this way beggars belief."

Cradley Print's managing director Chris Jordan (pictured) was unavailable for comment.